I am at the range or out shooting at BLM (bureau of land management) area with my legal AR. I have a typical AR with a bullet button and a 10 round magazine in the rifle. I finish shooting the 10 rounds. I have a few more 10 round magazines next to me that I want to swap out for the empty magazine. Can I legally, use a tool, to remove the empty magazine to insert a new magazine? Seems to me that I am now turning the AR into a detachable magazine and thus committing a No No. Would appreciate some guidance.

Librarian

01-23-2010, 1:38 PM

I am at the range or out shooting at BLM (bureau of land management) area with my legal AR. I have a typical AR with a bullet button and a 10 round magazine in the rifle. I finish shooting the 10 rounds. I have a few more 10 round magazines next to me that I want to swap out for the empty magazine. Can I legally, use a tool, to remove the empty magazine to insert a new magazine? Seems to me that I am now turning the AR into a detachable magazine and thus committing a No No. Would appreciate some guidance.

Change the magazines.

The issue is 'can the weapon accept a detachable magazine?' A Bullet Button creates a weapon that accepts only fixed magazines, according to the definition in CCR.

See http://wiki.calgunsfoundation.org/index.php/Non_detachable_magazines

Hanniballs

01-23-2010, 1:38 PM

With BB installed you can legally remove the magazine with the use of a tool.

elrcastor

01-23-2010, 2:16 PM

The whole point of a BB is removal of mags with a tool, so you can swap an empty mag for a loaded one. You are good to go!!

bwiese

01-23-2010, 2:31 PM

Since you use a tool, you do not have a 'detachable magazine' . That term is defined in 11 CCR 5469(a) as one that does not require a tool to remove.

Your BB-equipped semiautomatic centerfire rifle over 30" long, with a magazine installed, does not have a prohibited "capacity to accept a detachable magazine" - because there's a nondetachable magazine already installed.

Your rifle, with an empty magwell, does not have the "capacity to accept a detachable magazine" because a magazine in & of itself is neither intrinsically detachable nor nondetachable/fixed: the magazine's detachable vs. nondetachable status is solely determined by its relationship with the rifle in question. Once a magazine is inserted into a BB'd rifle it is locked in and requires a tool to remove and is thus nondetachable.

Due to the precise wording of the law, it is entirely sensible that a non-detachable magazine is in fact removable. There is no expression in the statue or regulation of permanence of attachment of the magazine to the rifle. The act of requiring a tool to remove makes this rifle topologically equivalent to the DOJ-approved Barrett M82CA rifle, as well as the SKS with fixed magazine.

We do not have to worry about "what the firearm could be" because of the lack of "constructive possession" for AW status. The firearm in question must be considered as it stands, unmoleested, at the moment of examination - any questions of a prospective AW status change due to prospective parts additions, removals or modifications are wholly irrelevant.